Lysaght Dancer wrote:
I could be naive and rely on his informed opinion or I could be batshit crazy and rely on your totally uninformed and made up opinion that’s only expressed to further your own narrative.

Yes you would. What I suggest you do is what I suggest everyone does. Listen to the views of others and make your own mind up.

Lysaght Dancer wrote:If I was the WRU I would be negotiating with us for a 5 year extension on the agreement, as it will maintain the value of their asset, and it’s an asset that they will find difficult to sell.

They will find it extremely hard to get investment for housing because the new housing stock for Newport is over developed by a good few years.

If they build a hotel and leisure facilities that will help but a guaranteed £150k a year plus from us will cover their borrowings on the asset.

It’s convuluted but I can only summise that they probably need us, in balance.

Interesting to see in the Wales online that the WRU have purchased the stunning former Post Office building at Westgate Street, Cardiff to run a hotel. The £45 million scheme which has planning consent, will be run in partnership with the Celtic Manor Hotel, with profits being given to the regions.

Would guess something similar is the plan for RP but to get planning, they will have to spend money on the ground. County have access to FA ground development funding, but the FA will want a long lease on the ground they are grant funding.

There are a few things at play - mainly we are all aware of the turmoil in Welsh Rugby with talk of mergers etc - the WRU own the Dragons and Buttress is thier puppet so this could all be bluff.

Also the whole of rugby inc the wru is being offered considerable investment either from a city lead consortium or a new world rugby format where all FU’s are going to gain £10 million p.a

So they all have to hang on for one more year due to their commitment to have four regions for another season then the truth and actions will unfold -

Personally I think the wru will love their own play thing in the east as they own this region lock stock and barrel -

Anyone who thinks the cabbage patch won’t be sold for profit making decelopment is a patsy or the top degree -

The big question then will be - do they want NCFC to share the ground with primature of tenancy ? Personally I would say no - we don’t pay enough and they’ve shown no love to us so far -

Either way we need to know by end of next season so plans can be made in time -
Don’t dream of a new stadium that’s £15 million minimum but spytty could be on the cards -

Let us see
UTC

The end of next season has to be the latest but fundraising/fan consultation should begin now using our recent success and the 30 years since we've reformed (r3f0rmed ) as the backdrop for our mission.

I, personally, realllllly don't want to go back to Spytty but accept it as Plan B.

IF, by the grace of Podge, we could get some funding for a stadium.. i'd say we could get away with one like Salfords 5,100 capacity stadium. Which I have a seen priced a few places as 'could cost up to £5m'.

Time for the Council to intervene and prevent the rape of the City’s only sporting facility of any note.
All the alleged interest from possible investors in the Dragons, is no doubt linked to the possibility of a quick financial killing from the sale of land that was acquired very cheaply.

Taunton Iron Cider wrote:Time for the Council to intervene and prevent the rape of the City’s only sporting facility of any note.
All the alleged interest from possible investors in the Dragons, is no doubt linked to the possibility of a quick financial killing from the sale of land that was acquired very cheaply.

Sorry to go around in circles, but the council are hardly going to step in and buy a privately owned stadium off the WRU when they've still got the liability of Spytty Stadium, even if it's hidden from their accounting bottom line under the name of Newport Unlimited The best we could hope for is some kind of land swap deal, similar to Cardiff's Ninian Park arrangement.
A whole new stadium is a non-starter, in terms of cost and availability.

Whatever we think of Newport City Council, I cannot see them seeing us out of a home twice in a generation, especially when they sold off Somerton Park for housing.

It is clear our hand is a lot stronger than it was two years ago as the games against Tottenham Hotspur etc have shown how valuable a successful football club is to the city centre can be. Personally, I think that any planning permission granted for the Dragons ( if this pipe dream happens ) will be on the proviso that Newport County have a home at Rodney Parade, failing that , the onus will be on the council to finally develop Spytty.

Though i agree with many sentiments such as council endeavouring to insert a must have county playing at the ground scenario I just don’t see it as actually happening however I think whoareya is bang on the money in what would be actually achievable as in the council land gift is spytty and then we go from there - for me I am loath to leave rodders but I am a realist and think it will be spytty -
The dragons now have to exist until the end of the 2020 21 season in the pro 14 so things will move quickly around that -
UTC

The NCFC Hippy wrote:Though i agree with many sentiments such as council endeavouring to insert a must have county playing at the ground scenario I just don’t see it as actually happening however I think whoareya is bang on the money in what would be actually achievable as in the council land gift is spytty and then we go from there - for me I am loath to leave rodders but I am a realist and think it will be spytty -
The dragons now have to exist until the end of the 2020 21 season in the pro 14 so things will move quickly around that -
UTC

Spytty would be the expensive option for the Council.

The Dragons do have to raise the money to develop the cabbage patch themselves. They could do this in partnership with say the Celtic Manor, but then the profits are shared. Council/County/Faw buying shares in RP would mean a Hotel development could be funded with the profits mainly going to the Dragons.

Bangitintrnet wrote:

The NCFC Hippy wrote:Though i agree with many sentiments such as council endeavouring to insert a must have county playing at the ground scenario I just don’t see it as actually happening however I think whoareya is bang on the money in what would be actually achievable as in the council land gift is spytty and then we go from there - for me I am loath to leave rodders but I am a realist and think it will be spytty -
The dragons now have to exist until the end of the 2020 21 season in the pro 14 so things will move quickly around that -
UTC

Spytty would be the expensive option for the Council.

The Dragons do have to raise the money to develop the cabbage patch themselves. They could do this in partnership with say the Celtic Manor, but then the profits are shared. Council/County/Faw buying shares in RP would mean a Hotel development could be funded with the profits mainly going to the Dragons.

Wasn’t the original plan to develop the cabbage patch and use the proceeds to develop RP? The latest idea just uses the money to prop up the loss making Dragons with no further ground improvements of any note. This regional Team has already been the root cause of Newport RFC losing their historic ground, and before long it will be lost to the City of Newport as well unless the Council takes decisive action.

The WRU have made it clear that whatever the future for ownership of the Dragons, they will not be selling Rodney Parade. Read the 5th paragraph;

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport ... -phillips/

rncfc wrote:The WRU have made it clear that whatever the future for ownership of the Dragons, they will not be selling Rodney Parade. Read the 5th paragraph;

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport ... -phillips/

What they are saying is that RP will remain a WRU asset, so all this talk from Mr Buttress as to what he will do with the cabbage patch and resulting proceeds is nonsense, and always was. Further, why would the WRU want to transfer a valuable asset into the ownership of a business whose financial future is always in doubt? Indeed Mr Philips is clearly keen to off load the Dragons because of the amounts of WRU money being pumped into them just to keep it afloat.

Now to pick up on your point about ‘not selling’ as that indeed is not what they are saying. Everything has a price and once the WRU see an opportunity to get a decent return on their purchase they will be off. This is why the Council needs to be sending a clear message that change of use at RP will be extremely difficult to achieve under any circumstances.

However the only benefit of having a useless City Council is that unfortunately the long term future of RP can be in little doubt, on which basis County has 3 years to start preparing Spytty.

rncfc wrote:The WRU have made it clear that whatever the future for ownership of the Dragons, they will not be selling Rodney Parade. Read the 5th paragraph;

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/sport ... -phillips/

I saw this also mcfc, unfortunately many posters on this subject appear to have lost the ability to distinguish between their opinions and facts. I've read many categoric statements of what the Dragons/ WRU/Council are thinking and what they will do. Some of which may well turn out to be true, but would suggest they are at best guesses. Whilst personally hoping that both professional rugby and football can continue sustainably at RP in the long term, I certainly don't know if that will be possible. I am confident however. I will continue to maintain the mental capacity to differentiate between my opinions and fact.

While the city centre location at RP is desirable it doesn’t address the fact that even with a state of the art hybrid pitch the playing surface for half the season is crap. Coming round to the idea that due to the ongoing mess that Welsh club and regional rugby currently is, Spytty may be the better long term option where we could have a decent pitch, training facilities, shop, ticket office, social club etc etc.

Spytty would be the end for us as a league club in my opinion, unless huge investment was made into the place and surrounding area. That running track would have to go somehow for starters, and the travel links would need to be improved massively - subsidised, regular travel by bus (and who knows, maybe train in the near future).

Even after that, I still think we'd lose 15-20% of our support base, purely because of how awful the location is. You just can't make a day/afternoon of the occasion at Spytty. As hard as it might be for some people to understand, the current location is good because you can pop out and see your mates for a few hours and have a few drinks beforehand and it becomes a social event, rather than just turning up in a wind tunnel and watching the match only.

Whatever people's views might be of that, it is an undeniable fact. A lot of our fans would be put off at the prospect I'd say, and I'd be one of them.